May 7, 2008 9:51 AM PDT
The Digital Home 14: Is Blu-ray really dead?
Don starts out the show talking with CNET's Tom Merritt about Blu-ray, Yahoo and much more. After that, he sits down with James McQuivey of Forrester Research to discuss the future of the digital home. And in a final segment you won't want to miss, Don tells the world why he won't sell out.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
Listen now: Download today's podcast
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EPISODE 14 |
TODAY'S LINKS:
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
"PS3. The reported declines in Blu-ray player sales aren't actually declines at all; they only apply to standalone players. Sony's PlayStation 3 has been moving serious units, and while standalone player shipments can be numbered in the thousands, Sony sold 257,000 PS3s in March 2008 alone. That represents a 98 percent growth rate in year-over-year sales. Given the high cost of standalone players and the fact that the price didn't fall after the HD DVD announcement, it's clear that most people are getting their Blu-ray fix from the PS3.
ABI believes that PS3s will account for a full 85 percent of all Blu-ray players in the wild by the end of 2008. Despite dire headlines regarding Blu-ray that are based on the recent ABI and NPD reports, it's clear that the format is actually growing the number of players in the field, and in significant ways. "
Lets just ignore the best blu-ray option.
if its so dead, why is it alive in my living-room at any given time
I have listened to your podcast, is Tom Merritt a joke or what, if he's an actual expert, then seriously you must be joking - by the way he not a genius.
Firstly, his point about price, DVD's did cost a lot when they first came out, it took a couple of years before the costs came down. Blu-ray won the battle but like all products it needs time to establish itself, its going trough that transition period now. The second point, blu-ray is "needed", not everyone will look to download everything onto memory systems on whatever device, for example, games have huge memory requirements rather than using whatever gigabits, a disc sounds more sensible plus its quicker.
Plus the market for downloading large movie files, games etc doesn't exist yet, maybe in 5-years time the broadband systems are efficient and capable to do this. But in that time Sony will make a killing through blu-ray, For example in the UK there is talk about broadband overload where there isn't enough speed or server spaces etc for such download services to exist. Not only that markets with limited broadband services will need blu-ray for movies/games etc.
So Tom needs to go back to school and learn to analyse things objectively and research things thoroughly before passing personal ideals as expertise.
I have listened to your podcast, is Tom Merritt a joke or what, if he's an actual expert, then seriously you must be joking - by the way he not a genius.
Firstly, his point about price, DVD's did cost a lot when they first came out, it took a couple of years before the costs came down. Blu-ray won the battle but like all products it needs time to establish itself, its going trough that transition period now. The second point, blu-ray is "needed", not everyone will look to download everything onto memory systems on whatever device, for example, games have huge memory requirements rather than using whatever gigabits, a disc sounds more sensible plus its quicker.
Plus the market for downloading large movie files, games etc doesn't exist yet, maybe in 5-years time the broadband systems are efficient and capable to do this. But in that time Sony will make a killing through blu-ray, For example in the UK there is talk about broadband overload where there isn't enough speed or server spaces etc for such download services to exist. Not only that markets with limited broadband services will need blu-ray for movies/games etc.
So Tom needs to go back to school and learn to analyse things objectively and research things thoroughly before passing personal ideals as expertise.
I just had a look at walmart.com to see how much Blu-Ray discs sell for and I can already say that there is not a chance of a snow ball in hell that I will buy movies in this new format. It is a total rip off.
DVD's may be inferior when it comes to resolution, that is true. However, the differential in quality and features (who gives a crap about a one hour special feature that is so boring that it makes you turn off the TV?) cannot justify the differential in pricing.
Add to this that video on demand is coming our way big time and studios must slash prices right now if they want to stand a chance to sell them.
Otherwise, like almost everybody else, I will stick to my cheap DVD's whose picture quality is enough.
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by techmulticast
May 13, 2008 9:28 AM PDT
- if HD-DVD is not truly dead then it is hard to believe BluRay (which won) will die. Believe it or not, some people just want to spend more to feel comfortable that they are getting the 'best' product available. Hence I do not think the high price tag will kill BR. Even if download is accepted, BR will still be around for quite awhile. oh btw VCDs are still around....
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See all 26 Comments >>Unless the maker of BR cannot stop bleeding and 'bleed' itself to death, due to the aftermaths of the format war, which I doubt so....Let see what is their next move. lol